EX.455 Paxahau

Each year, over 100,000 people descend on Hart Plaza to dance to techno in the shadow of downtown Detroit's skyscrapers. Movement Festival has become a crucial pilgrimage for dance music heads in North America and beyond, but when Paxahau took the reins in 2006, the festival's future was anything but certain. In this week's Exchange, RA's Matt McDermott speaks to Paxahau's core team—Jason Huvaere, Jason Clark, Sam Fotias and Chuck Flask—about their role as ambassadors and stewards of Detroit's techno legacy.

In this candid chat, we run over Paxahau's roots in the Detroit party scene, from their formative nights at loft parties to their ongoing dedication to powerful sound and nostalgia for chill-out room ambience. Paxahau's founders also discuss their role in representing the Motor City within a broader musical conversation. About 40% of the artists playing on Movement's outdoor stages hail from Detroit, but the festival also serves as a showcase for prevailing European sounds and diverse main stage headliners spanning from Snoop Dogg to Kraftwerk. All this within a downtown setting that has weathered a bankruptcy and experienced an improbable renaissance within the last decade.